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British media, however, predicted the couple would fail to capture the attention of Americans in the same way as Charles' 1985 official visit when a radiant Princess Diana danced with John Travolta at a White House dinner.

Papers in London took note of a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, which found 59 percent of Americans surveyed saying they were "not at all interested" in the visit, 22 percent were "not too interested," 13 percent were "somewhat interested" and 6 percent were "very interested." Nineteen percent said they would like to meet Charles and Camilla in person, compared to 31 percent who, in an ABC News/Washington Post poll in 1985, said they would like to meet Charles and Diana.

"The trip has been dismissed as a 'royal bore' by Americans," The Daily Mail newspaper said Tuesday, quoting a headline in USA Today. "It's sort of like an ongoing saga, one of the longest-running dramatic TV series," Mark Abrams, an executive of Guardian Life Insurance Co., said of the intrigue surrounding the royal family.

"He really does care about people, but a lot of people think, 'Oh, he's a Prince, what does he know about us, what does he care?"' Hodl said.

The Guardian newspaper said Tuesday that Charles and Camilla were determined to win over an American public that appeared to have "absolutely no interest in the eight-day royal visit." The Daily Mirror's New York correspondent also wrote that most Americans had no idea who Camilla was. The paper said its reporter showed a picture of the duchess to passers-by in Times Square, but many guessed that it was Nancy Reagan, Madonna, Queen Elizabeth II or novelist Barbara Cartland.

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Roses Are RedAnd So Am I

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I bet that 6% of VERY interested are the seniors that are looking for something to do.

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Roses Are RedAnd So Am I

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Prince William turned 25 today, giving him access to a reported £250,000 ($500,000) a year of his late mother Princess Diana's multi-million pound fortune. According to the terms of their mother's will, Prince William and younger brother Harry are entitled to their half share of her assets when they turn 30, The Associated Press reported. However, at the age of 25, the princes are able to access interest and other income accrued on the £6.5 million ($13 million) he was left by his mother.

William and Harry are both second lieutenants in the British army, earning salaries of about £22,000 ($44,000) a year. They also receive money for accommodation and other expenses from their father, Prince Charles. Fitzwilliams said William was currently training to be a Reconnaissance Troop Commander, but he doubted whether the prince would ever be in the front lines of battle. Last month, the British military reversed a decision to allow Prince Harry to serve in Iraq because it posed too much danger to him and those around him. "The idea that (the military) would let the future king in a danger zone is inconceivable," Fitzwilliams said.

As well as the extra money, William also can marry without the consent of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, now that he is 25.

It will be a difficult year ahead for both princes as the 10-year anniversary of their mother's death approaches on August 31. "The inquest (into her death) begins in October, which is expected to take something like six months to complete. It's going to be very painful for both the princes." In their mother's honor, the two princes have organized a concert for July 1, which would have been her 46th birthday.

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Roses Are RedAnd So Am I

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Diana Frances Spencer was born into a life of privilege. She grew up at Park House, a country home leased from the royal family's Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England. Her parents, Johnnie and Frances Spencer, were well-known members of the English aristocracy.

Inge Crane came to Park House as an au pair when Diana was just 3 years old. "There's always been something special about Park House. It's difficult to put a finger on what it is," she said in her first interview, given exclusively to CNN.

Life at the house wasn't entirely normal: The queen's estate was about a mile away, and the young Princes Andrew and Edward (Diana's future in-laws) frequently visited to swim in the pool. When the butler would ring the gong for dinner, the children would rush to the stairs, slide down the wooden banister and run into the dining room. Despite growing up in the shadows of royalty, Crane and Mary Clarke, Diana's nanny starting at age 9, describe an "ordinary" childhood for Diana, a tomboy who loved going outdoors, climbing trees and playing with animals.

"She was quite a lovable child," Crane said. "She was very, very cuddly."  Inside Park House, however, the marriage of Diana's parents was falling apart. The divorce was finalized in 1969. Clarke said the failed marriage had a resounding effect on Diana. "When Diana walked towards me at school, she had these downcast eyes," Clarke said of their first meeting, when Diana was just 9. Diana's broken home made her feel different from her classmates, Clarke said. Divorce was uncommon at that time in England. Even more unusual, Diana's father got custody of their four children.

Nearly 40 years later, Clarke still remembers their first conversation. "She said, 'I will never marry unless I'm really in love because if you're not in love, you're going to get divorced -- and I never intend to be divorced,'" Clarke said. "This was quite a profound statement for a little girl to come out with. Diana's dreams all through her childhood really were just to be happily married and to have a large family," Clarke said. Her dream, specifically, was to marry Prince Charles, 12 years her elder. While other 13-year-olds loved pop stars, Diana's boarding school room was decorated with pictures of Charles. The young child's dreams seemingly came true when she married him just seven years later, but, like her parents' relationship, her marriage unraveled.

From that first candid conversation about her aspirations, Clarke and the future princess of Wales connected. "We always clicked from the word go," Clarke said. "We worked together as a team." Clarke had heard rumors about a mischievous Diana, how a flurry of nannies had come and gone, including the one she locked in a bathroom. But, Clarke said, the Diana she knew never gave her "any headaches whatsoever." Clarke, who was 21 and had no previous experience, was given "sole charge" of Diana and her younger brother Charles. Diana often helped around the house and was especially nurturing toward Charles.

Charles would describe his sister as the "very essence of compassion" at her funeral. Diana's motherly instincts were evident as she matured. As a teenager, she would become a nanny, then an assistant kindergarten teacher, and then a mother of two sons, William and Harry. Clarke remembers observing Diana's impartial love at a young age. She played with children from royalty as well as children from the village. "They were all treated completely as equals, which is why I feel that in Diana's adult life, she ... found it so easy to interact and to mix with everyone, because to her, each person was an individual," Clarke said. Diana would become famous for that openness. She was photographed holding hands with a patient who was HIV positive in 1987, when many still believed the virus could be spread by touch. Diana devoted herself to her volunteer work, visiting the sick and campaigning for an international ban on landmines. Even as a teenager visiting patients at a mental hospital, she bonded with people, ordinary people, disabled people, in a way no other student could. In his funeral oration, Charles said his sister told him "it was her innermost feelings of suffering that made it possible for her to connect with her constituency of the rejected." She remained, he said, a "very insecure person at heart."

As the Princess of Wales, Diana captivated the world with the same qualities that stood out to her nannies: her affection, her vulnerability and her private misery. These qualities changed the face of the monarchy, and they keep the shy girl from a broken home just as much in the public eye, a decade after her death.

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Roses Are RedAnd So Am I